Thrown into Barbed Wire

The horse went sideways and you went into the fence full length, and the wire took you like a fish in a net. Three strands wrapped, and every roll you made to get free pulled the barbs deeper. Throat, cheek, brow, chest, all scored to the meat, one barb resting a finger's width from the big vein in your neck. The doctor cuts the wire away strand by strand with nippers, then sews for the better part of two hours, silk by lamplight, upward of a hundred stitches before he stops counting.

• Bedridden 3 days, then house-bound: no riding, no ranch work, nothing that stretches a stitch for 3 weeks
• Face and throat bandaged, talking kept to a whisper for 5 days to spare the neck sutures
• No lifting anything heavier than a coffee pot for 2 weeks, both arms are laced with stitching
• Every dressing changed daily and watched for heat, red streaks, or a sweet smell
• /me lies still and swathed in bandage, only the eyes moving, breath kept careful and small

Recovery Three weeks before the last stitches come out, a season before the scars settle, and some never fade.·Doctor, urgently

You got an arm up but the top strand whipped across your face anyway. A barb opened your brow and dragged down the cheek, missing the eye by the width of a whisker, and two more strands raked your chest as you fell through. The doctor washes the face wound with carbolic and closes it with the smallest silk he owns, stitch after tiny stitch, telling you to thank whatever you pray to that you can still see him doing it.

• Left eye bandaged shut for 3 days while the brow swells: no depth to your seeing, no shooting, no fine work
• Face stitches: no chewing tough meat, no laughing hard, no lying face-down for a week
• Chest wrapped, no full reach of the arms, no roping for 10 days
• /me tilts the head to see past the bandage, the stitched cheek held stiff

Recovery Stitches out of the face in 8 days, the chest in 12. The cheek scar is a long time settling.·Doctor, urgently

The middle strand caught you at the thigh as you went over and unzipped the trouser and the leg beneath it, a tear as long as your forearm and deep enough to show what a leg is made of. You crawled clear leaving a red trail. The doctor packs it, cleans it with carbolic until you howl, and closes it in two layers, muscle first, then skin, forty stitches if it is one.

• No riding astride for 2 weeks, no running, stairs one step at a time with a cane or a friendly shoulder
• The thigh wrapped thick, trousers split up the seam to fit over the dressing for 10 days
• Dressing changed daily: any heat, red streaking, or sweet smell goes to the doctor at once
• /me swings the stiff leg wide from the hip, weight kept off it, one hand finding walls and rails

Recovery Two weeks to walk it honest, a month before the thigh takes a saddle without complaint.·Doctor required

Tangled, you did the thing everybody does and grabbed the wire to push free. The barbs went through the palm and between the fingers, and when the horse's weight shifted the strand pulled through your closed fist like a saw. The doctor picks rust and glove leather out of the cuts, soaks the hand in carbolic water, and stitches what will take a stitch.

• Right hand bandaged into a mitt: no gripping, no gun, no reins in that hand for 12 days
• The left hand does all the work, and it is striped too, so nothing heavier than a bucket for a week
• Hand soaked and rewrapped each evening, every puncture watched for the swell of infection
• /me carries the bandaged hand against the chest, doing everything one-handed and slow

Recovery Twelve days wrapped, a month before the grip is trusted with a rope again.·Doctor required

You hit the top strand chest-first and it drew one long line from the point of the shoulder across the collarbone toward the breastbone, deep at the start and shallowing as you fell away. It bled like it meant business. Cleaned with whiskey when the carbolic ran short, closed with a dozen even stitches, and pronounced ugly but honest.

• No raising the right arm above the shoulder for a week, shirts pulled on left arm first
• A dozen stitches across the collarbone: no roping, no throwing, no rifle recoil against that shoulder for 10 days
• /me eases the shoulder in small circles, the shirt collar hanging open away from the stitching

Recovery Stitches out in 10 days, the line pink for a season after.·Doctor required

Your boot hung in the stirrup a heartbeat too long and the horse pulled you a wagon's length along the fence before you dropped. The wire read your back like a page, four raking tears from shoulder blade to belt. Face-down on the doctor's table, you feel him pick out rust and shirt cloth with forceps, then stitch the two deepest and paint the rest.

• Sleeping face-down or on your side for 10 days, no leaning back into a chair or a saddle cantle
• No lifting, no hay work, nothing that stretches the back for a week
• A friend or the doctor must repaint the back with iodine every second day, you cannot reach it
• /me sits forward on every seat, back held straight and clear of the chair

Recovery The shallow stripes scab in a week, the stitched pair come out in 10 days.·Doctor required

One barb, that is all it took. It hooked into your cheek as you went past and tore a flap the size of a thumbnail before the strand let go. You walked to the doctor holding your face together. He cleans it, lays the flap back like patching a tent, and closes it with silk fine as hair, working slow because faces, he says, are read for a lifetime.

• Soft food only for 5 days: soup, mash, bread soaked in milk, nothing that works the jaw hard
• No pipe, no whistling, and mind who makes you laugh for a week
• /me talks out of one side of the mouth, the stitched cheek kept still

Recovery Stitches out in a week. The mark it leaves is the doctor's finest work or your worst luck.·Doctor required

You pulled free and counted yourself lucky, right up until the forearm kept aching wrong. The doctor probes the deepest puncture and finds it: a barb snapped clean off the strand and buried an inch under the skin, dragging rust with it. He cuts down to it by lamplight, tweezes it out, and drops it in a dish with a ring like a coin. The hole is left open a day to drain before he closes it.

• Left forearm bandaged and slung close for 4 days, no lifting or leading a horse with it
• The wound drains a day before closing: dressing changed morning and night, watched for red streaks up the arm
• Any fever, jaw stiffness, or sweet smell from the wound goes back to the doctor the same hour
• /me rubs at the bandaged forearm, then thinks better of it

Recovery A slow week once the drain comes out, the arm honest again in two.·Doctor required

You got both arms up crossed in front of your face, and the wire took its toll there instead. Both forearms striped wrist to elbow, a dozen raking cuts, none deep enough for silk but every one of them dirty. The doctor picks them clean one by one and paints you with iodine to the elbows, so you go home looking half tanned.

• Both forearms wrapped in linen for 5 days, sleeves worn loose or rolled above the wrapping
• No wire work, no rope through the hands, nothing that rubs the forearms for a week
• /me rolls a sleeve back over the iodine-brown wrapping, checking the seep

Recovery Scabbed in 5 days, faded to thin white lines inside a month.·Doctor advised

The fence got your chest but your shirt got the worst of it, and the shirt was new. Three shallow stripes across the ribs and breastbone, stinging like a scalded cat, plus a fine collection of shallow punctures where the barbs bounced. The doctor sponges them with carbolic water, paints the lot, and charges you less than the shirt cost.

• Chest stripes under the shirt: no bathing in the creek, kept dry and painted for 4 days
• Rifle butt and rope coils carried on the off shoulder for 5 days
• /me plucks the shirt away from the chest where the cloth wants to stick

Recovery Stinging for 3 days, scabbed by the fifth, forgotten inside two weeks by everything but the shirt.·Doctor advised

You twisted mid-air and took the fence along one shoulder instead of the face, which was the right trade. Two raking cuts across the point of the shoulder and one deeper nick at the top of the arm that wants three stitches. The doctor obliges, paints the rest, and tells you the twist was the smartest thing you did all day.

• Three stitches in the top of the left arm: no throwing a saddle up with that side for 5 days
• The shoulder wrapped, shirt seams riding on the dressing, coat worn loose over it
• /me hitches the coat off the wrapped shoulder before sitting down

Recovery Stitches out in a week, the shoulder its old self a few days after.·Doctor advised

Your leg dragged the lower strand from boot top to knee as you went over. The trouser leg is ribbons, and the shin and calf beneath are scored in long shallow lines, with one puncture at the calf that went deeper than the rest. The doctor cleans the lines, probes the puncture until he is satisfied it is empty, and paints you to the knee.

• The calf puncture wrapped and watched for 5 days, boots swapped for something loose
• Walking is fine, running and jumping are not, for 4 days
• /me favors the striped leg a touch, the trouser leg flapping where the wire had it

Recovery The shallow lines are gone in a week, the calf puncture healed in 10 days if it stays clean.·Doctor advised

You caught the top strand with both hands to save your face, and it worked, mostly. The barbs stamped a row of punctures across both palms and the heels of your hands, dirty little wells that are worse than they look. The doctor soaks both hands in hot carbolic water until they wrinkle, squeezes each puncture clean, and wraps them light.

• Both palms wrapped light for 4 days, gripping kept short: reins yes, all-day rope work no
• Hands soaked clean each night, the punctures rechecked for swelling or red
• /me flexes the wrapped hands open and shut, testing the day's stiffness

Recovery Four days wrapped, honest hands again inside 10 if no puncture sours.·Doctor advised

You went through the fence rather than into it, and the wire only got one lick in: three shallow scratches down the left forearm, stinging and beading red. Washed with soap and whiskey at the trough, they hardly justify the story you are already building around them.

• Left forearm scratches kept clean and dry for 3 days, sleeve rolled clear of them
• /me turns the forearm over, admiring three red lines like a cat's work

Recovery Scabbed by tomorrow, gone in a week.·No doctor needed

One barb, one puncture, square in the heel of your right hand as you pushed off the strand. Small as a nail hole and twice as dirty. You squeezed it until it bled clean and doused it with whiskey, but the old-timers' talk of lockjaw sits in the back of your head like a burr, so a visit to the doctor might buy you sleep.

• Right palm heel tender: no full-weight pushing off that hand for 3 days
• The puncture squeezed and cleaned nightly, watched for swelling or a stiff jaw
• /me presses a thumb around the little puncture, checking it for heat

Recovery Sealed in 3 days, forgotten in a week if it stays quiet.·Doctor advised

The barbs got a fistful of coat sleeve and a whisper of the arm inside it. The sleeve is shredded from cuff to elbow, and under it sits one shallow scratch you would not have noticed on a branding day. The coat is the real casualty, and the horse, grazing fifty yards off, does not look sorry.

• One scratch on the right arm, kept clean, worth no bandage after tonight
• A torn coat sleeve to mend or explain for as long as you wear it
• /me pokes a finger through the shredded sleeve and sighs

Recovery The arm heals by week's end. The coat needs a needle and a kinder owner.·No doctor needed

By some geometry you missed every strand and hit the cedar post instead, taking it on the hip and forearm. You have a bruise coming that will be worth painting, and a single shallow scratch where a fence staple kissed your wrist on the way down. Dusty, hip-shot, and a little quieter around fences now.

• A deep hip bruise: sleeping on the other side and mounting from the off side for 3 days
• The wrist scratch washed once and left to its own devices
• /me stands up out of chairs a beat slower, one hand pressed to the hip

Recovery The scratch is gone in days. The bruise blooms a week in every color of a sunset.·No doctor needed

The top strand snatched your hat off with a barb through the brim, and that was the whole of the toll. You landed rolling in the grass on the far side while your hat stayed behind, crucified on the fence. One thin red line at the hairline where the brim dragged, dry before you finished swearing.

• A hat with a barb hole in the brim, worn as the proof of the story
• /me hooks a finger through the hole in the hat brim and shows it around

Recovery The hairline mark is gone in 2 days. The hat is scarred for life.·No doctor needed

The horse threw you at the fence and the fence declined. You sailed through the gap between the top and middle strands like a letter through a slot, landing in the bunch grass beyond with a snagged vest button as the whole of your account. Two witnesses will swear to it forever, and you could not do it again for a hundred dollars.

• A vest missing its second button, the wire keeping it as a toll
• Stiff from the landing, stretching easy for a day
• /me looks back at the gap in the strands, measuring it with a doubtful eye

Recovery Nothing to heal but pride, and pride does fine on this one.·No doctor needed

You went into the fence full spread, all three strands, dead center, the worst throw a man could design. And your heavy winter coat took every single barb. You hung there in the wire like washing on a line, swearing and unhurt, while the sheepskin and wool drank the whole fence. Two men cut you loose strand by strand, and when they peeled the coat off they found nothing under it but you, whole, and laughing wrong. The coat looks like it lost a knife fight. Keep it forever.

• Not a mark on you: the coat, gutted and leaking wool, is now the most famous garment in the county
• You owe the two who cut you loose a drink each, and they will collect in stories
• /me hangs the ruined coat over one shoulder like a trophy pelt

Recovery Nothing to recover but the coat, and no needle alive can save it.·No doctor needed